First of all, it remains a deep disappointment to me that the Bratz franchise is still a thing that exists.

That irrational non-sequiter out of the way, this week has no shortage of games hitting the shelves and in an ever increasing number of cases simply available for your downloading pleasure. I'm honestly trying to think of the last game I purchased in a box from a store for my PC, and I think it may have been Crysis 2 at release. Now, no small part of that is because finding a boxed PC game is the sort of rare thing that can legitimately be included in a scavenger hunt, but even if that weren't the case I've become so committed to Steam -- and to a lesser extent Origin and the-service-formerly-known-as-Impulse -- that I really hope the naysayers are wrong about the inevitability of these corporations ultimately screwing me. It's not even right to say I've put all my eggs in one basket. I don't even have the physical eggs.

The big game this week, of course, is Assassin's Creed III, and though I'm far from an unflappable cheerleader for this franchise, I have to admit that this one looks pretty damn cool. I feel like the AC franchise was flirting dangerously with becoming stale going back to the renaissance well again and again, so I'm hopeful that a shift in setting and plot points will keep the magic alive, so I'm giving my nod for Game of the Week to Ubisoft's perennial power house.

That said, it really should never be overlooked when Criterion games releases a AAA racing title. Though Need for Speed: Most Wanted comes with the NFS pedigree, buzz is that this game is more a successor to Burnout Paradise than anything else, and that should only be viewed as a good thing. Most Wanted is definitely a game I'm keeping an eye on.

Also this week Natural Selection 2 gets an official launch and Zone of the Enders HD Collection lands on Xbox and PS3.